Courtesy: Google
Manchester United suffered their 13th defeat of the Premier League 2024-25 season at the hands of Nottingham Forest, losing by a narrow 0-1 margin, following which their manager Ruben Amorim stated that they helped them to win. In a highly competitive match played at the City Ground, Manchester United threatened to score, but they weren’t clinical in finishing, while allowing Anthony Elanga to score an early goal on the counter-attack, which ended up being a difference maker
With 69% possession and 23 shots at goal, including six on target, Manchester United had Nottingham Forest defence on the ropes for most of their match, although the all-important goal didn’t arrive for them. Harry Maguire, who was introduced as the makeshift striker in the second half, came the closest to equalising for Manchester United in the seventh minute of added time, but his shot was cleared off the line by centre-back Murillo.
In the last third, the last pass, the last assist wasn't there: Ruben Amorim
In his post-match interview, Ruben Amorim, the Manchester United manager wasn’t happy with the attackers for not taking the chances which came to them during the Nottingham Forest match. He was quoted as saying, to TNT Sports, “We tried with good opportunities, but in the last third, the last pass, the last assist wasn't there. Then if we don't have that we cannot score goals.”
“This season is like that. We had a lot of shots on goal, we pushed the opponent to the last third, but in the last third we had a lack of quality,” he added.
The Portuguese was also critical of the Manchester United defence for allowing Anthony Elanga to open the scoring by nearly running the entire width of the pitch on the counter-attack. He remarked, “We know the characters of the [Forest] team and one goal can put them in one situation that they love. We have to score two goals to win a match and that is frustrating as it was the beginning of the game. We helped them to win three points.”
